Cupar

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CUPAR

Burgh

Incorporated into: 1975 North East Fife District Council (1996 Fife Area Council)

Official blazon

Gules, three crowns of myrtle Or.

Above the Shield is placed a coronet suitable to a Royal Burgh, thereon a Helmet befitting their degree with a Mantling Gules doubled Or, and on a Wreath of their Liveries is set for Crest a lion rampant Gules, armed and langued Azure, and in an Escrol under the Shield this Motto "Unitas".

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted on September 14, 1929.

Cupar is known as a Royal Burgh of 1327. It appears, however, that it may have been a Royal Burgh a considerable time before that as it seems to have been a place of some importance by the time of King Alexander Ill, whose wife Queen Margaret died there in 1275.

The arms are based on a post-Reformation seal used by the Burgh, though when the change was made is not clear, since there is on record an impression, dated as late as 1780, and similar to that on the pre-Reformation seal, which shows the Holy Trinity on the obverse and a lion rampant on the reverse.

Despite this, tradition has it that the three wreaths of myrtle were substituted to commemorate the bloodless victory of the Protestant Lords of the Congregation over Queen Mary of Guise at Cupar Moor in 1559.

The colours used are the red and gold of Macduff, Earl of Fife, and the crest is the Macduff lion; in the Middle Ages, Cupar was the seat of this powerful Earldom.

The Latin motto "Unity" may refer to the Holy Trinity.

An offer by Lord Lyon Grant to allow the Burgh to have two angels as supporters (as shown on one of its former (probably eighteenth century) seals) was not accepted by the Town Council.

Seal of the burgh as used in the 1890s
The arms as used on a JaJa postcard +/- 1905	The arms in the Coffee Hag albums +/- 1935

Community Council

Official blazon

Gules, three crowns of myrtle Or.

Above the Shield is placed a Coronet appropriate to a statutory Community Council, videlicet:- a circlet richly chased from which are issuant four thistle leaves (one and two halves visible) and four pine cones (two visible) Or, and in an Escrol below the same this Motto "Unitas".